As any of you who have been reading this website for a while know, I've been working on getting more people to participate in leaving comments and checking out the polls I host. Well, I haven't quite been too successful at that, but I have had the pleasure of having one person comment quite frequently on my posts since Monday. I really appreciate it and am hoping that I can encourage more of my readers to contribute feedback to this website.

On a different note, I was published by inhabitat.com for the first time yesterday. I can't believe that I have met this achievement. On a whim, I had decided to try and contribute a story to their website. I thought, almost certainly, that it wouldn't be posted, but to my great surprise, it was! Here's a link to the story that was published : http://inhabitat.com/mickey-mouse-shaped-solar-farm-powers-walt-disney-world-in-florida/. You can also see the longer one on this news page, likely right under this post.

Thank you to everyone who reads this website, I greatly appreciate it and hope you continue to do so. Don't be scared to leave feedback either, it helps me improve my website so it is nice for everyone to read.

A Mickey Mouse shaped solar farm has officially started powering Orlando’s Walt Disney World Resort. Located near Epcot, this solar farm has been waiting to be switched on for a long time now. On Tuesday, April 12, the solar farm was switched on with representatives from Disney World, Duke Energy, and Reedy Creek Improvement District all attending. The farm has not been hidden, as it is immensely large, housing 48,000 solar panels and being visible from space. These panels power not only the resort, but surrounding hotels where park visitors stay. This is the current largest solar investment made by Epcot, but certainly not the first. Parts of the park and Epcot have been fueled by solar panels since 1982. The plans and building of the farm were announced last year with Disney’s plan to reduce their carbon footprint by 50% by 2020. Besides the Mickey Mouse solar panel farm, Disney has begun running the resort’s trains on biodiesel from recycled cooking oil.

Observing nature has gotten the biofuel industry far, and this new game changer is no different. In Denmark, observing nature has fueled University of Copenhagen’s researchers to try a reverse photosynthesis process that changes biomass into fuel using the sun’s energy. Reverse photosynthesis could be on its way to having fossil fuels run out of power. Biomass are plants and plant remains that can be converted into fuel, however the process can be expensive and complicated. The Copenhagen Plant Science Center is looking to change that with this reverse photosynthesis technique. Its’ much cleaner and uses nature to fuel the process. An enzyme (something that can speed up reactions between chemicals) called lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase is added to biomass, along with chlorophyll (the pigment in plants that make them green). Add a little sunlight and the sugar molecules in the biomass break down into chemicals that can be converted into fuel. Many techniques of creating fuel from biomass are flawed because of the time it takes to convert the biomass into chemicals. With this reverse photosynthesis technique, it only takes 10 minutes of exposure to the sun for the chemicals to be produced. And where most production of other energy sources takes energy to produce energy, (a spark of electricity to get a wind turbine’s blades running, for example) all this takes is the sun.

We all know that rainy days are problems for solar panels because of the clouds that block the sun from being absorbed by the solar panels. This is a serious problem for places that have more cloudy and rainy days than sunny. However, four scientists from Yunnan Normal University and the Ocean University of China have possibly discovered a way to solve this problem that has been a hurdle for the solar energy companies for years. So what if rain could power solar cells as well as the sun? The answer may be in a one-atom thick layer of carbon from graphite called graphene. This process was only discovered a decade ago, but ever since it has been changing the way we live. It can purify water and can be worn as technology. It is also currently called the “World’s Most Conductive Material,” which means that it is the best material available to produce electricity. The scientists from Yunnan Normal University and Ocean University of China placed graphene on top of solar cells, which when exposed to rain, produces salts. These salts, including ammonium, calcium, and sodium, interact with graphene’s electrons to produce electricity. Therefore, the solar cells have been able to produce energy even on the cloudiest days.

Wind Turbine Syndrome is the alleged disease that happens when people live around wind turbines too long. It has been reported that people experience dizziness, have trouble sleeping, and can get headaches, but there is no evidence that says that it's real. In fact, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention as well as most scientists and doctors refuse to recognize it, calling it a psychosomatic disorder.

Some researchers call the disease a 'nocebo effect,' meaning that people just begin to believe something completely harmless is making them terribly ill. Others seem to claim health issues are a result of the person's general dislike for wind turbines. However, most all researchers agree that the area needs to be studied more, as all research so far seems to be flawed.

However, this isn't stopping Australia from spending $2.5 million to find out for sure. Two grants have been awarded to provide money to study this 'disease.'

Flinder's University of Southern Australia is the first recipient of this grant. They are planning to study how wind turbine noise affects people's sleep and quality of life in general.

Researchers at the University of New South Wales received the second grant. They will be focusing their studies on broader social and environmental impacts of wind farms on people who live near them.

Both plan to proceed with studies in labs and directly at people's houses.

Australia also promises to continue to fund this project for the next five years. This project is following a previous Australian study on the "disease" which proved that there was "no direct evidence" that said wind farms led to changes in health.

While waiting for the evidence of this project, Australia continues to install wind power across the country. Australia had 75 wind farms that house around 2,000 turbines, as of 2014. It now amounts to 4% of their electricity sources.

So what do you all think? Does wind turbine syndrome exists? Do you think it's all just a bunch of malarkey? Or does this area need scientific research for the sake of the human race? Tell us below!

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